Spain: use of day-after pill up 83% in 2010

It was first year of non-prescription availability

(ANSAmed) - MADRID, DECEMBER 14 - In Spain, the use of the
so-called 'day after' contraception pill rose by 83% in 2010,
the first year in which women were able to purchase the
medication freely in pharmacies, without a doctor's
prescription. According to consulting company IMS, as cited in
today's El Pais, the increase took off from October 2010
onwards, when the decree liberalising the sale of the pill came
into effect. Sales of the pill in 2009 had shown growth of 43%
year-on-year. A large part of the increase in sales of the drug,
experts say, corresponds to a decrease in its distribution
through hospitals and family planning clinics, which is no
longer compulsory under the law.
Up until 2009, the drug was only available freely from
family-planning centres in Andalusia, Cantabria and the Madrid
municipality. Experts say talk of 'abuse' of the pill is
inappropriate as, according to research by Spain's association
for contraception, a mere 0.4% of women aged between 14 and 50
have used the pill more than once a year. (ANSAmed)